


I Bring Life

by Jedi_Bant



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-30
Updated: 2011-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-28 12:26:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/307857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jedi_Bant/pseuds/Jedi_Bant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose looks into the Time Vortex and sees Jack's pain as he outlives everyone around him. COE fix-it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Bring Life

"I looked into the Tardis, and the Tardis looked into me." Rose stared off into time and space, the heart of the Tardis glowing out of her soul. She could hear the Doctor's panicked tone but barely acknowledged it.

"You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, no one's meant to see that."

She could vaguely hear the Daleks repetitive cries for her to be exterminated. When a bolt of energy rushed towards her all she had to do was hold up a hand and the deadly energy was returned to its source, leaving her completely unharmed.

"I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words..." she waved a hand and the words 'Bad Wolf' detached from the wall and floated off into oblivion. "I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here." She watched the words float through time, placing them throughout her past on the walls, on the basketball court, in Gwyneth's visions, everywhere she would need to lead her here, to this moment.

"Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now." He sounded concerned, "You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're gonna burn."

She finally looked directly at the doctor, "I want you safe." Tears trickled down her face, "My Doctor. Protected from the false God."

The Dalek emperor scoffed, "You cannot hurt me. I am immortal."  **  
**Rose turned towards the Dalek emperor's transmission, "You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space, every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." She raises her hand again and this time the Dalek in the centre of the room disintegrated into a golden cloud of particles, which disappeared into nothingness."Everything must come to dust... all things. Everything dies." One by one the Daleks were destroyed, their atoms disappearing into the void. "The Time War ends." And despite the emperor's denials, the mother ship and all the smaller ships surrounding the station disappeared into nothing, taking the emperor with them.

Rose continued to stare off into space, arms raised in the air as she watched the destruction she'd wrought.

"Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go." The Doctor begged, regaining her attention.

"How can I let go of this?" she observed the beauty of the universe, all its different planets, different races, starting from nothing, building into grand civilizations, all different, all beautiful in their own way, in their own right. Her attention shifted over the rest of the space station, the Doctor and herself the only life forms remaining…Jack, his dead body slowly cooling, collapsed against a corridor wall, alone, their last line of defence, brave till the end. Handsome, brave, wonderful Jack… "I bring life." Jack gasped back into live, safe and well again. Her friends need never die again, they would live forever with her, she could travel forever in the Tardis, Rose and the Doctor, with Jack and Mickey, her mum could come too, they would be together forever.

"But this is wrong! You can't control life and death!"  
"But I can." She countered, returning her attention to the doctor, "the sun and the moon... the day and night." Her voice trembled, hesitant, "But why do they hurt...?" her head pounded under the strain, every moment in time running through her head. The Doctor and Rose traveling through time and space, going to New New York, London Olympics 2012, fighting the Ood. The Doctor has a new face but it's still the Doctor, she knows it is. The Docter with a black girl, with a red head, the Doctor-Donna. Another new face, still the Doctor, traveling with a married couple. Where was she? Had the Doctor left her, had she left the Doctor?

"The power's gonna kill you and it's my fault." The Doctor lamented.

More tears fell from her eyes as she continued to watch all of time in a single moment,  **"** I can see everything. All that is... all that was... all that ever could be." Jack living beyond his natural lifespan, living and dying, living and dying but always living again. Leading his team, protecting Cardiff and Earth from the Rift's flotsam and jetsam. Living alone, surrounded by friends and sometimes family, his wife, his children, grandchildren but alone always alone, all others dying in the end. Jack sitting on the floor, clutching his beloved, knowing he was dying, another in a long line. Jack, poor immortal Jack, living forever, alone forever. She could fix it though; she reached out through time.

The Doctor stood abruptly, looking down with understanding, "That's what I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"

"My head..." It was too much, too many possibilities, to much death, destruction, she couldn't control it, she couldn't change everything. It was too much. **  
**"Come here."

The Doctor. The Doctor would fix it, "it's killing me..."

The Doctor took her hands and looked her straight in the eye. "I think you need a Doctor." He stepped towards her, leant down gently pressed his lips to hers, and the time vortex flowed out of her, it all went away, all the pain, all the hurt, all the death and possibilities and would be's and could be's; the Doctor made it all better, the world disappeared. And it was alright because at least Jack was alive and he would never be alone again. She smiled as consciousness was replaced by nothing.

* * *

Jack gasps back into life, though not as violently as was his norm. He slowly sits up, knowing what will greet him. Yet again, another person he had dared to care for, dared to love, had died. This time in his arms, joining the ranks of his dead friends and family, his parents, Estelle, Alex and so many other Torchwood members, Toshiko, Owen and now…

He glanced to the side, Gwen is there, he turned his eyes away, back to his lap. He didn't want to see, didn't want to look at yet another loved one dead and cold, waiting to be buried; but when Gwen sobs quietly beside him he could not let her suffer alone. He moves over behind, gently wrapping his arms around her, finally looking over her shoulder and down at Ianto's pale, still face, forever frozen in stoicism.

"There's nothing we can do." Gwen whispers, absolute devastation in her voice, her posture.

All Jack could do was hold her close. He wished he had some words of comfort to give her, something that could make everything better, put it all back the way it was, the whole team working together, when their biggest problem was what came through the rift, when there was no 456 hijacking children and demanding that the governments of the world act as drug dealers to an alien race.

He would just get the latest reports from Unit, which he would subsequently ignore, he would scold Tosh for working to hard, drag her away from her latest piece of alien tech to come to the pub or send her off home. Owen would saddle out of the autopsy room demanding coffee and complaining about something or another before settling down at his computer to peruse his favourite porn sites. Then Ianto would come in from the archive, rolling his eyes at Owen sending some snide comment the medics way but all the same moving over to the coffee machine to provide everyone with his wonderful magic beverage that no other could match. He'd pass them around, Jack would take the chance to cop a feel and get a comment in return about harassment, though Ianto's eyes and cheeky smile would tell another story. Gwen would be at her terminal pretending to work on something or another while really exchanging IM with Rhys, as if no one knew what she was really doing.

Life had been so simple. Wake up next to Ianto, go to work, hunt weevils, spend time with the team, go to bed with Ianto wrapped in his arms. Safe, simple…gone forever.

He squeezed Gwen gently then moved round her. Leaning forward he ran a hand through Ianto's hair, then down the side of his face and across his lips with a thumb. He had hope…so hoped that he could bring Ianto back to life with his final kiss, as he'd done once before. It hadn't work though and as tempting as it was to try again…

"Come on Gwen, he's gone. There's nothing more we can do for him." Jack stood, and reached down to pull Gwen to her feet, put an arm around her shoulders, pulled her against his side and leading her towards the exit.

But something out of the corner of his eye gave him pause. Turning back he was just in time to see the golden glow that enveloped Ianto before vanishing just as quickly.

Moments later Ianto Jones gasped back into life.


End file.
